| 'Turkeytacular' was a planned trip organized by Mr. Champ
and the other Usual Suspects the traditionally takes place in the late fall.
Weather was questionable and some peoples commitments were dropping like
flies. I decided to rock down Thursday night right after the front blew in.
Water for the most part was still up to the dunes and receding slowly. It
took 2 hours to get to the 20mm and overall was very slow creating your own
road. I stopped in the mid-twenties for a couple more hours waiting for the
wind to switch and the tide to change to allow just enough beach to drive
the remainder way down to Mansfield. Hitting the beach at just after 8pm
Thursday, I arrive down at the jetties at 4am on Friday. With not another
soul for miles, I drive up and claim the high camp. With my main intention
of getting down early in the morning to gig, the water clarity did not allow
it so I decided to crash.
Sandifer, Rocky, and Cork woke me up Friday morning and I was
having no problem taking my time getting up and organized. The water was
quite dirty and current still out of the north hitting the Jetty. Capt. Billy
and I walk around looking for and finding a various array of fossils along
with some cool shells that recently washed up.
Not long and everyone takes off and I am undecided where to
fish. I throw a rod out hoping for bait and end up getting a small Red. Winds
have already switched out of the Southeast and blowing strong. Around 3pm
VTOL arrives and stakes claim on his parking spot. The pelicans begin diving
at the end in the dirty water and around this time I pack up and head out
to the jetties.
I immediately begin tossing Spoonr's and get hooked up good fish the
look amazingly like Tarpon. Then after jumping a couple and having them
straighten the hooks I find that they are indeed Tarpon... and they are
EVERYWHERE. The Tarpon were hanging off the jetty picking off Menhaden, Shad,
Mullet, and any other baitfish being sucked out with the tide. I change from
Spoonr's the 6" Storm Shad and begin jumping Tarpon one right after another.
The next 2 hours was non-stop Tarpon action. Out of about 15 Tarpon jumped
in those couple hours, I got about 7-8 up to the rocks. With the easterly
swells destroying the end of the jetty, fetching the fish was not a safe
option thus through the process of pulling them up or walking them down the
jetty would result in further hook straightening or simply throwing the hook.
While I never got one up on the rocks itself for a pic, the days events were
simply overwhelming for mid-November.
After jumping about 10 Tarpon in a row, the Jackfish made their way
in and hooked up to 4 over the next hour which prevented me from catching
the Tarpon.
For the first time in a long time, another inshore species had made
priority over Sharks and the sharkbait - aka Jack Crevalle. I was glad I
was getting the Jacks but would have much rather continue jumping the Silver
Kings. When darkness came I made my way off the rocks. An incredible day
with fun tarpon from 3'- just under 5'. I get back to camp hauling two 25lb+
Jacks and slowly more people started showing up. I sat and relaxed for a
while as people were showing up and enjoying the company. Late that night
I decided to give gigging a try again with mediocre water conditions. Todd
and Richard went for a couple hours as well and I stayed out for about 3-4
hours. Lots of beds but not many present flatfish. I nailed 3 along with
a load of Blue Crabs, a few Stingrays, and some other mystery creatures.
The last Flounder was picked up in the last 20 minutes and was quite a doormat.
I got back and another late night up til about 4:30am. I crashed and
woke up in the mid-morning to find Richard 'FullonHarvest' nail a solid Jack
along with landing his first Tarpon. A very happy angler. Curmit, VTOL and
I head out to find the mass of Tarpon is still there. We get out and I begin
nailing several Reds, majority oversized, and feeding heavily not allowing
a chance for many Tarpon hookups. I had 3 Reds in a row that had relatively
fresh scars from sharks.
Even the slot Reds were all released for we did not have an
icechest nor really a desire to keep anything out there then. Then just when
I jump a couple Tarpon I get into the Reds again.
The Reds would soon move out or stop feeding which provided
us time to hang into the Tarpon and more Jacks. For this day I would jump
8 more Tarpon, with having two up to the rocks and again spitting the hooks
before being able to maneuver down to land them.
I would leave the rest of the guys to the fun for I decided
to go get some shark gear for the last hour of daylight. I come back and
Curmit is already hooked up and lands a nice 5 1/2' Blacktip. Not much longer
Shindle foul hooks a Tarpon and is able to jump down sacrificing all to land
the beauty.
Out of the 3 baits I deployed, one got picked up and after several
seconds is dropped. We duke it out for another hour or so and head back to
camp to feast on Champs badass fried Turkey! Many of us stayed up to party
and many of us crashed early. There was lightning and rain off in the distance
all night.
I wake up mid-morning to find Curmit, Dwade, and Henry out fishing
the morning bite. They caught a couple Reds and Curmit hooked into a decent
sharks. I again made our way out on the Jetties bringing both Tarpon and
Shark gear. I immediately hook into a couple Reds but the water is a bit
dirtier and while you can see the Tarpon are still there, they are not as
aggressive as the previous days. I did get to jump one solid Tarpon around
5' with the first couple hours.
I soon get organized and ready to get baits out when Curmit is hooked
up again on a shark.
He fights the fish for a while and gets her. A fat female Blacktip,
a quick pic and she is guided of the slick granite platform for the release.
Right after releasing that Blacktip, Curmit waste no time getting
another bait out. Once again right when I am ready to begin deploying baits
he gets hooked up.
After another great fight on a spinning outfit, Curmit gets in another beautiful
Blacktip.
And once again, as soon as the fish is released Curmit gets
another bait out and bingo... back to back to back he is hooked up again
on another fish.
This fish with an attitude provides a heroic fight for itself but is quickly
subdued next to the deploying rock. Another great catch and safe release
from the rocks.
By the time I get baits out it was too little too late, the
tide had changed and the fish had moved. With only one run the shark drops
the bait. We continue to keep an eye on the baits and see Tarpon feeding
on the surf-side. Curtis castnets some Mullet and we balloon and free-line
some out. After a while I get a taker but too much slack in the line before
I could catch up to him and the Tarpon ended up throwing the hook as it breached.
Meanwhile, Curmit gets hooked up down the rocks a bit but it doesn't appear
to be a Tarpon... it ends up being a Finetooth.
Overall it was another incredible trip in crappy ass conditions.
The fish were there and for the first time ever did I not only hook a Tarpon
in November, but I jumped around 25 up to 5-1/2' in 3 days. Congrats to Richard
and Shindle who were fortunate to actually get their hands on one for it
provided a smile for everyone. With this major Thanksgiving cold front,
the Tarpon will be gone til probably next May. With the water temps dropping
dramatically within the coming week, expect the Sandbar Sharks to invade
and if the water is clear enough, Pompano to be in force. The trigger mechanism
for the winter species is now here and lets hope the weather cooperates enough
for us to hammer these species.
Lots of fun with some good friends... Until the next great beach adventure
- Oz and Usual Suspects
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